You don't mess with Bird Nests

Bird Nests can fucked you up.

I went for a birthday dinner, those similar to wedding kind, and they served birds' nests as the dessert.

I went home happy happy with a full stomach, and by 2 am, I was fucked up.

My eyes were so swollen, my lips were abit swollen, and I had block and running nose.
My face literally looked like this.... -_-

I could barely open my eyes and I felt itchy all over.

Went to the doctor first thing the next day.

The Class of Derby County

Here is the team that I have using for FM09. It is one of the best I ever had.
It gives me great joy to introduce them.
Some of the players I use FM Scout to search for them, but some of them I really took hard work and sweat to find them.

Formation: 451

Here is the formation I have been using.
Striker: The striker has to be "modern" and be able to fulfill a number of roles. He has to be able to score, hold the ball up and push the opponent's defensive line deeper, thus creating more space for the midfielders.
Attacking Midfield: The striker is backed up by 3 attacking midfielders, making forward runs and causing havoc. They are all quick, creative and intelligent.
Midfield: This is followed by 2 midfield centres who protect the back 4 , so they have to have good tackling, work rate and stamina.
Full Backs: The modern game requires full backs to be able to attack and defend. Therefore, they have to be speedy, high work rate, stamina and good positioning. They won't be doing much tackling, as their jobs is to intercept balls and block crosses from coming in.
Centre Backs: At first I wanted them to be able to head the ball, strong and aggressive, just like Sol Campbell. However, the modern game requires them to have some kind of pace as well. I was lucky to find 2 defenders to have both.
Goal Keeper: Often under-rated, I think the goal keeper is one of the most important player. I always look for players with good reflexes, agility. command of area and aerial ability. In this way, he can DOMINATE his area and block any attacks, whether they are high or low shots.

1. Ben Foster
He is reliable and stable. No mistakes made by him, but also no games that he becomes a spiderman and saves every ball that comes his way.
I bought him in my second season with Derby and he has been ever present in my team.
A solid buy at just 1.5 million.
Highly recommended for weak to mid table teams.







2. John Williams
He came from Derby's youth team. I was surprised to find him in my reserves and although he is not world class, he definately has the stats to suit my team and style of play.
This season his contributions have not been very outstanding, due to his poor defending.
However, his attacking form is very good as he has contributed 4 assists this season.







3. Gary Grant
I found this player myself! I bought him from Blackburn(sorry Tay) for a cheap fee of just 4 million.
In just 1 season, his reputation became world class and he was called up for the England team.
He became a regular, replacing Ashley Cole at just 21!
He is one out of 4 world class players in my team.







4. Francesco Buriani
This Italian defender came to me in a very very weird way.
I didn't find him, but my assistant manager did.
I was looking for a defender centre, and I asked my assistant manager for any recommendations. He recommended Buriani and I took a look at him.
At first, I was very sceptical as Italians cannot adapt to the English lifestyle. But his stats were so good that I plunge into it.
At that time, he had just signed a contract with A.S Nancy, a french team. However, the contract he signed lasted just 1 year! Needless to say, I picked him up for free after 1 year. He is the 2nd of my 4 world class players. =)



5. Danny Price
Another player from the famed Derby Youth Academy. Like John Williams, I didn't know he exists until I had an easy game to play and wanted to rest some of my players. He came in, did a good job defending and when Liverpool wanted to buy my first team defender, I sold my defender and let Danny Price make the step up.
He was highly recommended by my players and coaches to be the Captain.
At just 22, he is my captain.
Although his defensive stats are fantastic, his attacking stats are shit. Really shit.



6. Luke Marsden
Ok, I use FM Scout to find this youngster. I was a bit short on midfielders at that time. I wanted a hard tackling midfielder. I decided to be like Arsene Wenger and invest in youth. So I use FM Scout to find me the player with a high potential.
However, I really did not expect him to develop until to be so goooood.
His long shots are just superb. The only flaw I think is he is not aggressive enough and he can't head the ball for nuts.





7. Danny O' Connor
This guy I am DAMN proud of. He came from my youth team and my assistant manager say that he is probably the best player of his generation.
He is only 19 years old and yet his stats look very similar to Steven Gerrard.
Really, he seems superb in every way I look at him.
If I really have to criticise him, I think it would be his heading.
But seriously, I am damn blessed to have a player like him.



8. Luis Suarez Gonzalez
I bought this player for 18 million from Reading. My original right winger, Giles Barnes, had an attitude problem so I sold him. I couldn't find a replacement, so decided to spend big on him. I have no regrets though because he is turning out to be quite a good player.
No flashy shows like Ronaldo, but he is very efficient.
I just like to see him take the ball, dribble down the right flank, and cross for Chris Pearce to score!




9. John Fleck
Like Ben Foster, he is a real life player. Only both of them are real life players. The rest are regens that are generated by the game randomly. In this way, you will never play the same game twice.
I forgot about this player but Marvin reminded me of him.
In real life, he is dubbed "Wayne Rooney of Scotland".
He used to be good, but compared to the rest of my team, he is ok. However, I have some feelings for him as he has stuck with me for nearly 6 years.

Real life picture of John Fleck

10. Sam Roberts
Ok, he looks weird. But he is WORLD CLASS. He links up with Chris Pearce damn well. Many times, he takes the ball runs through the middle, and just slots the ball for Chris Pearce to run and score.
Simple pass, simple goal.
The only negatives of him is he just can't shoot. His finishing skill is only 13, and although he scores some, but he miss them more.
I will probably ask him to place his shots, in order to increase his scoring rate.
Oh, and he gets injured MOST OF THE TIME.
Stole him from Newcastle for just 2.8 million.


11. Chris Pearce.
This guy needs no recommendation. He is the jewel in the crown.
I wanted to make Danny O'Connor the vice-captain, but everybody liked him so much that I made him the vice-captain.
The only negatives of him, is his preferred foot is right foot only, long shots and positioning. Maybe his passing and bravery needs to be improved too.
But what the heck, he scores 1 goal per game for me. Better than Ronaldo.



Now that you have seen my team, I am hoping for some nice feedback. Who do you think I should replace? Who should improve and in what way etc.
Most of the players, I have some kind of bond with them. I have played the game the "Arsene" way by buying them young and developing them.

Hope you like this introduction as I definately enjoyed myself typing it. Now I feel even more gian to play. MUST CONTROL MYSELF.

Any comments?

EPIC Match

EPIC MATCH.

I was losing 2-0 at half-time. Gave them a damn good "hairdryer" treatment and send them out.

Within 10 minutes I pulled a goal back. But my stupid defender had to get himself red card for a 2 feet tackle.

I thought sure doom. But I played 3 defenders, 4 midfielders, 1 attacking midfielder and 1 striker. I had a feeling Newcastle will try to attack to get a 2 goal cushion, so I played counter attacking.

By 80th minute, I thought ok, another FA Cup gone. Try again next year. But then suddenly, the ball got cleared to my AMC who treaded a through ball to Chris Pearce to score in the 87 minute!

Literally jumped for joy.

Then in the 90th minute, Chris Pearce was 1 on 1 with the keeper again! But Coloccini went to foul him, so its 10 men each.

Then in stoppage time, the ball was crossed in the box for a goalmouth scramble. There was chaos and mayhem as everybody wanted to kick the ball. In the end, the rebound fell to Pearce who just BANG it home!

I jumped up and stand up with my hands raised and my maid say "Crazy", then walked away.

Fantastic victory.

Hope my r/s will end in a bang too. :)

My GF plays football

My girlfriend plays football.

She went to play some water football in Jurong with her friends.
Football is such a contact sport, and she is playing with some guys.
Sure get taken advantage.

Tell her not to go, but she wants to go.
I cannot control her, so I close 2 eyes and say ok, go.

Dabing say definately will get taken advantage. :(

EDIT: Oops. Wrong info. Not playing with guys. lol.

Anyway, today I read in the newspaper that Jazreel won some pageant contest. The thing I want to highlight is that she said she is working as a secretary in some investment firm and hopes to transit to be a junior trader when she graduate.

I'm so impressed. Why didn't the hell I think of that.
I'm always think that part time jobs are stupid because they don't really add to your resume. Therefore, I didn't work for Ghim Hong's call service job etc.

But I should have done what she did. I'm so demoralised now. Already 1 step behind NUS, NTU and SMU students, now I'm 1 more step behind SIM students.

Guess I got to buck up.

Today's mood: Doom and Gloom.

Upturn in fortunes

My world class striker Chris Pearce, which I posted in the previous blog post, has been injured for 3 months!

Thankfully, his deputy, Vaclav Kadlec, a Czech Republic striker has taken over his position superbly.

Vaclav Kadlec is a real person in real life, unlike Chris Pearce, and can be bought at the start of the game for a free. :)

Here is his stats.


As you have noticed, his stats is somewhat similar to Chris Pearce. Super in the air, and has good finishing ability. He has pace, although not very fast, but still enough to cause problems to a slow and pushed up defence.
Though not as good as Chris Pearce, he is what I call a complete striker.

Notice his goals per matches. Twice this season, I have played him in the 80th minute and he came off the bench to score a 90th minute goal. Fantastic super sub.
As Chris Pearce is injured, I have played him in 2 matches and he has scored in both. A good deputy.

As for my results, I think I have finally found the sweet spot :)
I used to play short passing football with a normal tempo. I thought that was very similar to the way Arsenal play in real life.
The results I got were not very good. Although I had very high possession and shots, I find that I was creating too little clear cut chances and my possession was due mainly to my players playing very cautious passes.

One day, I read an interview by Fabregas regarding the way Arsenal play football. He stated that Arsene Wenger encouraged them to play forward passes. Mistakes were allowed, but if you give the ball away carelessly, that was not tolerated.
This statement set me thinking. Maybe Arsenal were not playing short passes, but more of passes that were generally more attacking/forward. To conduct my experiment, I watched the match Arsenal vs Wigan.
My theory was proven right.

Arsenal were playing very attacking passes. Only the Defenders were allowed to play short passes that were mainly cautious. They were also capable of long passes when openings were spotted. This was mainly done by Fabregas.

So I went back to FM's tactical board and created a more direct passing tactic. I also made more forward runs for my players. More forward runs = more forward passes.
Direct passing didn't mean that there were more long ball passes, but meant that passes were more direct, more towards goal, rather than trying to keep possession and pass the ball short.
Direct passes can also be on the ground, not just in the air.

I created the tactic and then tried it. The results? Simply superb.



The football has been fantastic to watch at times, and there was always an element of control in the game. Sometimes I had less than 55% possession, but I was always attacking and the opposition chances were long shots at goal, hardly threatening.

Enjoy :D

Jizz in my pants!

As only Mahfin read my FM posts, I decided to post something else.
Since Limin love this song 李玖哲 - 想太多, I decided to post a song that I just heard!

Its called Jizz in my pants!

Here is the URL to see it. :)

Video on Youtube.


I COULDN'T RESIST THIS FM POST. WAS HAPPILY PLAYING AND THIS HAPPENED.

Rainy Day

Heng today got no school!!!

It's been raining non stop since morning until 1 pm in the afternoon. Limin is still asleep, I'm feeling drowsy due to the lack of sleep and its so cooling!

Feels great to laze around at home. :)
Going to enjoy this precious moment by studying FI.

FM Update:
I managed to get both Oscar and John Fleck homegrown by using an editor. Cheat? Yes, but considering I got cheated in the first place gives me to right to use it. :)

Anyway, I bought this young striker for 5.5 million from Bolton. I had some money to spend and
needed a striker. I found this young kid and Bolton had just been relegated. I was at first reluctant to spend 5.5 million on him as that's all the money I have. But I had a hunch he was going to be a star as his stats is superb for a 17 year old.

This is him as a 17 year old.


And this is him 3 years down the road, as a 20 year old. Notice the difference in stats and value.



Fantastic development. he is going to be my star striker for the next few years. A pity his favoured foot is right only. However, he is really the complete striker. I love strikers height, big, strong and fast. As a lone striker, the ball can go to him in every way and he will be able to feed on it.
The only thing weak about him is his Long Shots, Right Foot Only, Determination, Decisions, Anticipation and Natural Fitness.
Other than that he is puuurrrrfect. :)

Sudden fall in FM09

Ok no WTF.

I bought Oscar and Fleck when they were 18. But they didn't get homegrown status despite being at my club for 3 years. I was so angry that I immediately submitted a post to the FM game forums asking why is this possible.
They replied that they turned 19 during their 1st season, so in truth they were 19 when I bought them.
This is utter RUBBISH.
Cristiano Ronaldo was bought by ManUtd on July 2003 and he was 18 years old. On feb 2004, he turned 19, so he shouldn't be homegrown too.

I replied this answer to the forums and everyone kept quiet. Still awaiting a reply from them.

After browsing throught the forums awhile, I came upon this thread which really sums it all up.
Just watch and enjoy.


Stupid game. They talk so much but cannot deliver.

Lim's Top 5 players to buy in FM09

I have made an update since the 9.03 Patch Database. Click Here to see it!


In every football manager game, there are a few precious talents that are young, cheap and waiting to explode on the scene. I have just played finished my 4th season in FM, and am proud to present to you the top 5 players to buy in FM09.

These players are all young, cheap and not meant to throw head first in a big team like ManUtd, Chelsea etc. However, they will serve you well if you are a smaller club.

Lets get rolling.

5. Daniel Aquino - AML/FC, Murcia
This Spanish striker is young, able to play on the left and has good creativity. More of a Del Piero striker than a Ruud Van Nisterooy type. Having pace and strength is what I look for in strikers, as they are able to run fast and yet shrug off challengers from defenders.
The only downside is his preferred foot is his left only.


4. Robert Lewandowski - SC, Lech
This polish striker might differ from game to game as he has a random potential. However, on my game he is RED HOT. He has pace, strength and jumping ability. A complete striker.
The only downside is his preferred foot is his left only.


3. John Fleck - AM/FLC, Rangers
This guy might be a tad difficult to get for small clubs, but in the 2nd season you can get him for around 3 million. Here is a trick I did to get him. Offer them 1 million to loan him and a 2 million option to buy. They will accept this rather than accept a 3 million offer to buy him outright.


2. Oscar - AMC, Sao Paulo
You can get him for 4 million. Its in his release clause. The only downside about him is his low passing rating. However, he still makes 100 through passes per game. What I like about him is his finishing and off the ball ability. In my game, I slapped a 50 million tag on him, and yet there are numerous clubs ready to pay.



1. Mascio - MC, Cisco
This Brazilian/Italian midfield centre has the attributes to be a tough tackling midfielder or a creative attacking midfielder. You can pick him up for 250k in the beginning of the game. Die die must buy. I bought him in my 5th season on a free transfer. If I had bought him earlier, he would have a homegrown status. Perfect for any club.


Most of the good attackers in the game are left sided. Its hard to find some good right sided players. I know there is a lack of defenders in my top 5, but I really can't find any!
Hope you enjoy this post and look forward to a pleasant FM gaming.

Bolt

This is one of the best movies I have seen in a long long time.
Strangely, 2 of the good movies that I last saw were cartoons. This and Kungfu Panda.

This movie had everything, action, comedy and some parts of it were quite touching. It was abit predictable, but what can you expect from a Walt Disney movie?

Highly recommend everyone to watch this movie.